William Bain & Sons

Bain and Sons fulfilled my most important criteria: the price was good and they turned up on the date/time that they said they would and took 1.5 days to complete the job, as they promised. (I had completely cleared the room in question, to assist them) The replacement ceiling was of good quality. Many builders can't even manage the above. My only criticism is that the guys seemed more interested in doing the job, than protecting my property and clearing up. Initially the poleythene dust sheet was not taped to the hall carpet, until the boss turned up. Before that, it rucked up exposing the carpet to much dust. A little damage was done to the wallpaper, although I accept that it is an incredibly heavy and messy job. They did a very cursory clean of the room at the end. After they left, my wife and I spent six hours hovering-up and wiping down the still dusty kitchen surfaces. This was not easy with a domestic vacuum cleaner. However, I was not expecting them to do deep clean either. Would I recommend them Bain & Sons? Yes, it was a good job, with a good price, completed on time.

Used to replace a small section of water damaged ceiling. Initial communications (Brian) were polite and respectful; estimate for £441.60 incl. VAT issued clearly stating ‘remove section of plasterboard, re-plaster with correct thickness’ (of plasterboard). Unfortunately the job was given to Jamie, whom I found plastering directly over the temporary board as a short cut instead of removing and replacing it. This wouldn’t have been a problem, but it meant the spotlights were all bunched together on the temporary board rather than evenly spaced: it looked terrible and left the back of the bathroom in darkness. When I pointed this out, Jamie became visibly irritated, citing he couldn’t do it without an electrician, then he couldn’t do it without a joiner etc... These were not legitimate excuses. There was no electrical or joinery work involved: it was simply placing the already working spotlights within a new piece of plasterboard. They even have a whole page dedicated to ceiling repairs on their website. I eventually managed to get him to replace the temporary board as outlined in the estimate. His attitude was rude, aggressive and completely unprofessional. He eventually replaced the board (strangely, no electrician or joiner required) but would only grunt belligerently when I asked him how it was going. His co-worker was equally rude, and the whole atmosphere was just incredibly awkward. To be fair, the plastering job was fine, but the spotlights weren't lying flush against the ceiling. I wrote a polite email to Brian to thank him for the work and ask whether it would be possible to pop out and straighten the lights. To his credit he did send someone: unfortunately it was Jamie. Cue another tirade of sarcastic comments trying to shame me about making him come out again. I have no idea why he had to be like this: I was being perfectly reasonable in asking for the lights to be made flush after paying almost £450 for the work, and had done this respectfully, yet was treated like a demanding ‘Karen.’ As a woman it can be hard to be assertive with tradesmen, but I tried to keep the tone light and professional. The end result was ok in the end, but I found the whole experience very uncomfortable. These two workers who visited my property should develop some maturity and respect. To summarise: they were caught taking a shortcut and, when found out, treated me with disdain. To think this kind of behaviour adheres to the Federation of Master Builders codes of conduct is laughable.

A very neat job done on repointing my external steps and garage walls. Work was efficiently done, and everything was cleared up at the end of the job.

Contacted Bains about a pebbles dashed job as well as a roof job. From start to finish they turned up when they said they would and carried out a first class job that we are very happy about. Would not hesitate to recommend Brian and his team.

After 18 months of phoning round a load of other companies to try and get a small but tricky exterior building job done - and waiting in for people that didn’t turn up and/or were never seen again - I found Wm Bain. Total breath of fresh air. Came out when they said they would to give me a quote, gave me a date for doing the work and again turned up bang on the dot. All really nice guys, and did a good professional job. Can’t recommend them highly enough. For anyone else who’s been through the “trying to get someone reliable” to come out to you saga in Edinburgh, Wm Bain is your answer!